Potter County | featured news

Matthew was a tax collector. This meant he not only tolerated the presence of the Empire, he also worked every day of his life to fund and support the very military that slaughtered millions and forced the cultic worship of Caesar at sword-point.
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Early childhood education programs at two local high schools that serve as daycares for students’ children and offer educational services for the wider public will be cut at the end of this school year.
The programs have spots for more than five dozen children and employ a staff of 22.
Region 16 Education Service Center Director Ray Cogburn said Amarillo Independent School District has asked Region 16 to remove Head Start and Early Head Start programs from Caprock High School and Palo Duro High School because of a need for the space.

A local group on a mission to house the homeless has been gifted a piece of land to build what could be Amarillo’s first tiny home village.
Located in northwest Amarillo, the narrow 6,250-square-foot lot on North Rusk Street donated by John and Maria Lair could hold from one to 10 tiny homes depending on what the city approves, said Yellow City Community Outreach’s Dan Ferguson. He said he is working with the city to iron out a path forward for the project.

With her legs crossed under a fuchsia sari, Mona Agarwal told a gaggle of 3- to 5- year- olds about Lord Rama, a valiant prince whose story shapes the Hindu festival of Diwali.
Rama was exiled to an island, separated from wife Sita. He built a bridge, defeated the 10-headed, demon king Ravana, and reunited with Sita.
“Little lamps are burning bright, burning bright, burning bright — it’s Diwali,” sang the children to the tune of “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” filling the Hindu Temple of Amarillo with their young, off-pitch voices.

Gunshots near a gas line replacement in the North Heights community has resulted in Atmos Energy pulling workers from the project, company officials confirmed on Thursday.
Public Affairs Director Roy Urrutia said contract workers reported the incident on Sept. 28 and Atmos Energy immediately ceased working on the project.
Urrutia would not confirm whether shots were fired at the contract workers or just within the vicinity.
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The Amarillo housing market may soon add a national, award-winning property if Scott Allison catches a little luck.
Allison and his company, Champion Builders Inc., have a property among the 17 homes being reviewed in Metrie’s “Every Room Tells A Story” competition. Three nationally acclaimed designers — Cheryl Torreneuva, Heather Maloney and Erin McLaughlin — will make the final call. The kicker? Designers will judge houses solely on their use of moulding, a process which uses subtle lines lifted above a flat surface.

A call regarding shots fired in north Amarillo led to the arrest of two men Thursday.
Officers were called to the area of Northwest 15th Avenue and North Jefferson Street at 8:36 p.m. after gunshots were reported. Officers approached the area and saw a group standing in the front yard of a home. A man ran and appeared to throw a gun before being caught and detained by officers.
According to the report, police found the gun and determined the man had fired shots into the air. No one was injured.

Four names have been added to West Texas A&M’s Communication Hall of Fame, which honors graduates of the school’s Department of Communication.
The 2016 inductees are Paul Matney, former Amarillo College president; Ann Shofner, retired Tascosa High School speech and debate coach; Jerry Hudson, faculty emeritus and founding dean of the Texas Tech College of Media and Communication; and Misty Price Mayo, president and CEO of the Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corp.
They were recognized Wednesday evening at a special banquet on the WT campus in Canyon.

Randall County deputies who arrested a man pulling a stolen trailer Friday discovered he was also wanted on four felony warrants.
Rickey James Luke, 39, of Canadian was stopped for a traffic violation at South Loop 335 and Foxtail Street. Deputies determined the trailer he was pulling was stolen about two weeks ago from a home on Southwest 77th Avenue.
During the stop, deputies found a small amount of methamphetamine and learned he was wanted on four felony warrants and one misdemeanor warrant out of Ochiltree County.

An escaped fugitive was captured in an investigation led by U.S. Marshals Friday afternoon in north Amarillo.
Gabriel Toquinto, 30, who had escaped from a bureau prison, was staying at a home in the 900 block of Louisiana Street when agents from Homeland Security, the Texas Department of Public Safety and Amarillo Police Department officers spotted him leaving the house.
The North Texas Fugitive Task Force had determined Toquinto was staying at the home, leading to Friday’s capture.